What’s really the appeal of the best board games? Fun? Frivolity? Distraction? That ‘new cardboard’ smell when you open a board game for the first time? Or is there something deeper going on?
Decades after the Satanic Panic looked to stifle interest in the positive effects of role-playing games and other forms of collaborative play, academics are now turning to board games as a rich site of cognitive development. One recent study across various universities in Spain concluded that "playing modern board games in the classroom could be better for learning and cognitive development than direct-instruction methodologies," while another at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile saw a clear boost in children’s numerical skills.
